Snape was sure that if he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath, everything would be normal again. Potter would be silently brooding in the corner, Weasley would be struggling to comprehend the lesson, Granger would be busy being an insurable little know-it-all…and Lily Potter nee Evans would no longer be standing there smiling at him, looking very much alive.

Snape closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again.

Lily was still there. Still smiling, however the smile was fading a bit; concern was appearing in her sparkling green eyes.

Snape blinked. I must be hallucinating.

Lily was still there, worry lines creasing her forehead now.

Snape blinked again. What did I eat at breakfast that could possibly elicit hallucinations?

Lily's eyes were widening. Her smile vanished.

Snape closed his eyes again. At least the food tampering can't have been the Weasley twins' doing, and Potter is nowhere near smart enough to come up with such an idea…unless Granger was prompting him from the sidelines. No, something must have been rank. Had the milk soured? Could that cause it?

Lily was still there when he opened his eyes again. Now she was gaping at him, looking a bit fearful.

But that's impossible! Screamed that voice inside Snape's head. She's dead! Think rationally! Snape mentally chastised himself. Furthermore, this Lily in front of me is much too young…she doesn't appear to be any more than sixteen, and even if she were Lily's ghost, she would have to be at least twenty-two. But everyone knows Lily couldn't possibly have come back as a ghost This is absolutely ridiculous!

Lily wrung her hands, looking very much in the flesh.

And yet…could it really be that she is here now? Would it really be so impossible? Would it really be a bad thing even?

When Snape looked up at Lily again, she was acting peculiar. Her hands were clasped to her head, covering her ears, and she was wincing, as if in terrible pain; he could have sworn she had cried out. When he glanced around, he saw Potter, Weasley, and Granger, doing the same thing. Curious…

I knew Potter was involved, somehow!

Lily could have sworn that Snape was staring at her. With a sickening feeling, it began to dawn on Lily that Snape could see her. Her smile began to fade, concern appeared in her eyes, and worry lines creased her forehead. That had to be why he seemed to have the most curious, un-Snape-like expression on her face. She gaped at him, fear beginning to slowly creep upon her. Yet, it was impossible! How could he see her? Lily wrung her hands, apprehensively.

A moment later, this fear was confirmed for her, however.

Snape had lowered his head for a brief moment of contemplation, and when he raised it again, squinted slightly, peering at her. A horrible screeching sound suddenly cut through the air, so shrill that it made Lily wince and clap her hands to her ears. She let out a small yelp out surprise. A quick glance around showed that her companions were all covering their ears as well, having heard the same horrible sound.

"What is that?" James demanded over the noise.

Lily opened her mouth to explain, but was interrupted by Miranda's exclamation to discover what was going on. She was about to try again, when Sirius suddenly barked at her, "Do something! Make it stop!" Sirius added, as the sound only proceeded to rise in pitch and volume.

"It's Snape, isn't it?" Remus asked, a great deal softer than his counterparts.

Lily nodded. "He can see us, James—" she began.

"He can see us, James," Lily stated clearly. "I reckon he can see us."

Snape frowned. Us? Who can see us? Is that supposed to be me? Wait, stop. Lily Potter is talking. And I can hear her. And she's not a ghost. Snape's thoughts rushed through his head, jumbled, incomplete. Yet I don't feel mad…

"—that's not helping James!" Lily was snapping sharply. She flung out her hand, palm up, as if trying to hit the air.

And 'James'? She's talking to James Potter? Am I going to be seeing Potter, too? Now this is starting to turn into a nightmare. For some reason I--I thought he was here! He is really here then?

And all of the sudden he was there!

James Potter was perched on the edge of the table, just to the side of Harry, holding a hand to a throbbing cheek, which apparently had just been slapped by Lily. He had his arms crossed and was glaring at Snape from behind his glasses. His hair was its usual mess, sticking out at all angles. He, like Lily, looked no more than sixteen.

"—blame me!" James retorted. "Blame him! And stop this—this dreadful racket!"

"I'm not sure it's his fault!" She responded. Waspishly she added, "and I'm trying!"

What racket? Snape mused, as he instinctively glared right back at James. He didn't hear anything out-of-the-ordinary. Unless one would count hearing Lily and Potter talk out-of-the-ordinary…in which case I suppose this a unique occurrence. Or maybe Potter is just as idiotic in death as ever he was in life. Which is not impossible nor would it be unsurprising.

"—don't know why it is getting louder." Lily was saying, when Snape zeroed in on her again. "And I might be able to think of it a little faster without you pestering me to think on it, Sirius!"

Snape froze. Sirius Black. He seethed. I almost got that git to be Dementor prey, until Potter stepped in…although he did get his eventually. Still…it would have been satisfying for his demise to be at my hands. Snape's fists clenched. Black cannot be here. It's just too ludicrous. Wait, I have a problem with him suddenly appearing here but not Potter…or Lily? My god, what did I eat this morning?

"Lil-y! It's getting louder again!" James shouted out. "Do something!"

"I'm trying!" Lily replied. "Remus, do you have any helpful suggestions?"

Lupin is here, too now? Snape's anger began to build even further, before he forced himself to take a deep, calming breath. It's time to be rational. This is all just…some sort of horrible nightmare. When I look around again, everything will be normal. Unless…unless they really are here. Unless Black, and Potter, and Lily, and however many others of these figments of torture from my past are truly here and in the flesh. Is it really so farfetched? I hope so. For the sake of…well everything…I hope this is all some sick sort of dream. It has to be. Unless…

Snape jumped a few feet in the air when Sirius Black and Remus Lupin appeared not feet from him. All of them, like James and Lily, looked no older than sixteen. Sirius was standing on the tabletop, one hand jammed to his ear, while he aimed his wand directly at Snape with the other hand, eyes narrowed, lips pulled back over his teeth in a feral snarl. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were gaping at him, Ron was drawn back almost against the wall for fear of being stepped on; they could plainly see him. Lily had a hold of a bunch of Sirius' robe down by his calf in one fist, while her other hand was against James' chest, pressing him back against the wall, in a gesture which told him not to move or do anything.

"Sirius, get down!" Lily shrieked, her face stern, her eyes flashing; clearly a force to be reckoned with. "Now, this instant!"

Sirius ignored her. "It'll make the sound stop won't it? If I get Snivellus out of the way—"

"Sirius, don't!"

"Do it, Padfoot!" James urged, as he tried to retrieve his wand from his robes.

"No!"

"Moony, if he can't think about us anymore, than the warning wards wouldn't be going haywire and the alarm would stop, wouldn't it?"

Remus nodded reluctantly. "But I don't think you should—"

"It's not fair—he can't see you!" Lily insisted. "Only me so—"

"Is that so?" Snape asked, wryly.

Lily whirled around in shock, her mouth dropping open. James pushed away from her hold and triumphantly brandished his wand.

"What's going on here?" Snape demanded acidly. "I was under the impression that most of you were dead."

"Levicorpus!" Sirius and James shouted in unison.

There was a flash of light and Snape found himself dangling upside-down by the ankle in midair. Fury coursed through his veins; yet again Potter and his little gang had used his own spell against him! Snape roared in anger as the entire class gasped, staring at him, shocked to see their professor suddenly hanging upside-down without warning and seemingly against his will. Snape grappled with his robes for his wand.

"Don't think about it." Sirius sneered, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

Snape's fingers clenching over his wand.

"No, I've got it, Pads." James stepped forward.

"Like hell. I have a feeling that I've been waiting for this…for a very long time."

Snape withdrew the wand from his robes.

James turned around to argue with him. "I said I could handle it."

"So could I!" Sirius protested. "I got him with Levicorpus first!"

"We got him at the same time!"

Snape was just about to curse them both—better yet, curse the whole lot of them—when the world suddenly went black.

"Who did that?" Sirius and James demanded.

Snape, released from the hold on his ankle, had fallen to the ground with enough force to render him unconscious.

"I called it!" Sirius complained.

Miranda stepped out from behind Remus, holding her wand aloft, and grinned at them both. "I did."

"Why?" James griped. "I was just about to—"

"To get us all hexed." Miranda cut him off. "You both took so long fighting I thought it would be ages before one of you actually did something productive. Lily and Remus were too boggled by Snape actually addressing them—proving that he could see us all—that I had to act. And act quickly. Normal people would thank me and be grateful. Or buy me lots of beautiful presents—which I wouldn't say no to, by the way."

"Um, what happened to him?" Harry asked, starling the group with his interjection.

"Oh, I just knocked him out is all." Miranda responded crisply. "Fairly easy spell. Effective too, extraordinarily so if done nonverbally."

"What do we do about Snape?" Ron asked anxiously, peering at Snape's prone form.

"Leave him there." James answered, smirking slightly. "I'm sure someone will care and come for him…eventually."

Many of the students seemed to have much the same idea. A group of them, mostly Slytherins, had gotten out of their seats and clustered around their professor. A few tried to shake him awake, and when that didn't work, murmured to one another. A few shrugged and began to gather their things up to go.

"But we can't just…leave him." Hermione protested. "We have to tell someone. He probably needs to go to the Hospital Wing."

"You want to take him?" Harry asked, skeptically.

"Well no, but—"

"Then it looks like class just ended early." James cut her off, his tone bright.

Harry gathered up his things and hopped up quickly, eager to put as much space between Snape and himself as possible. He could feel in his gut that Snape knew that he was involved in the whole incident. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Snape's revenge would not be pleasant. As he followed his parents out of class, however, Sirius seized Harry's arm roughly and dragged him to the back of their troupe.

"We need to talk. Now." Sirius hissed.

A/N: I am so sorry about taking so long to update! I was camping and the day after that was over, I had to go right to school to move in and start the new semester. Thus Ihave had very little time to jsut write non-school related stuff. I will try to update all of my stories as soon as is possible. ;) Thanks to everyone who has reviewed; please continue to do so!